No One Makes Money. It’s Too Profitable.

Quote: "No one makes money when oil flows. They make money when it's disrupted." Lt. Col. Mike Getchell, an operations officer with the 101^st Airborne in Iraq, quoted in the Washington Post.

Figure of Speech: paradox, the contrary figure.

Oil smugglers are behind at least some of the sabotage of pipelines in Iraq, apparently. They disrupt the supply and then sell fuel on the black market. The result is a paradox—Greek for "contrary to common sense or opinion"). While we see it as a figure of self-contraction, ancient rhetoricians saw the paradox as a maverick belief that goes against majority opinion.

Sort of like Bush on Iraq.

Snappy Answer: "Some people make money when oil flows. But they're not Iraqi."